Faster Payments hits £53.5bn in under a year

Faster Payments, the system designed to speed up the movement of money between banks, has now seen £53.5bn in transactions since its launch last year.

In the first quarter of 2009 alone, Faster Payments saw £20.6bn pass through its network according to statistics from UK payments association Apacs.

Read this

Cheat Sheet: Faster Payments Services

• Read More

The UK service was launched in May 2008 with 334,000 transactions being made during its first month compared to the almost 23 million in March 2009.

However, this remains a long way behind the conventional Bankers Automated Clearing Services system (Bacs), which saw more than £944bn in transactions during the first quarter of this year.

Overseen by Apacs and run by payments processor VocaLink and Chaps Clearing Company, the Faster Payments system is intended to allow funds to appear in the recipients' bank accounts up to two hours after a transaction has been initiated. In contrast, payments made through Bacs take up to three days to arrive.

Faster Payments was the result of the Treasury-sponsored Cruikshank Report in 2000, which recommended payments between banks be made quicker and more transparent.